China claims gold reserves at end of 2016 a massive 12,100 tonnes

China’s proven gold reserves reached 12,100 tonnes at the end of 2016, the state news agency Xinhua reported on Monday quoting an official with the national gold association.

China has been the world’s biggest gold producer for 10 years and the largest consumer of the metal for four years, it said. China aims to increase its annual gold output to 500 tonnes by 2020 from around 450 tonnes currently, it said.

Last year, 70,000 tonnes of gold were traded in China on spot exchanges, futures exchanges and over-the-counter at banks, and that amount was expected to exceed 100,000 tonnes by 2020, Xinhua quoted Zhang Yongtao, vice chairman of the China Gold Association (CGA), as saying.

In the first half of 2017, China produced 207 tonnes of gold, a drop of 9.8 percent from a year ago, although gold consumption rose nearly 10 percent to 545 tonnes, with consumption of gold bars up more than 50 percent, the CGA said.